Justice Radar: Real Rights for Invisible People (RadarJust)

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We are happy to announce that we will start a new project
The name of the project is Justice Radar.
The project is for people who live in intitutions.
Their right is not respected.
Pople in institutions donțt know how to fight for their rights.
We will monitor insititutions and will talk with the people who live in institutions.
We will explain what are their rights and how they can fight for them.
We will help them to make self-advocacy groups.
We have a partner for this project from Bucharest.
Bucharest is the capital of Romania.
The name of the partner association is Advocate for Dignity.
The money for this project are coming from Switzerland.
Switzerland is a developed country in Europe.
They offer money for development of ROmania.
The money in Switzerland is called swiss franc.
Our project is financed with 199.860 swiss francs.
Our project will run for 2 years.

In Romania, thousands of people with disabilities live their lives in institutions, out of the community’s sight. When their rights are violated, few people ever find out – and even fewer cases reach a judge. RadarJust sets out to change this: to make visible what happens inside institutions and to bring justice closer to the people who live there.

Ceva de Spus and Pledoarie pentru Demnitate – Centre for Monitoring and Social Justice announce the launch of the project “Justice Radar: Real Rights for Invisible People” (RadarJust), funded within the Civic Engagement Programme, supported by the Swiss Contribution.

What does it mean to be institutionalised?

Being institutionalised means living in an institution instead of a home of your own in the community: a residential centre for persons with disabilities, a psychiatric hospital or ward, a care home for older people. Sometimes for a few years, sometimes for a whole life.

It is not the building that makes a place an institution, but the way people live there. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities describes its signs: isolation from the community, no control over day-to-day decisions, no choice over whom to live with, a rigid routine set by others, and the same activities in the same place for a group of people under someone’s authority. Even a small home can work this way.

In public residential centres for adults with disabilities alone, around 16,000 people live today (official data, March 2025). For them, abuse often goes unseen: they do not know they have the right to complain, they have no one to tell, and their voices are rarely heard.

What will change

Over the next two years, we will work so that people in institutions are no longer invisible:

  • Someone comes, sees and listens. Teams of self-advocates and monitoring experts visit institutions, talk directly to the people living there and document abuse. We make our findings public through monitoring reports.
  • A reported abuse no longer stops at the institution’s gate. We set up a mechanism through which abuse can be reported and brought to the authorities that are obliged to act.
  • People have a lawyer on their side. Institutionalised persons receive legal counselling, assistance and representation to defend their rights, including in court.
  • People know their rights and speak for themselves. Persons with disabilities, including those with a history of institutionalisation, learn what their rights are and how to defend them. We build new self-advocacy groups and a Self-Advocates Advisory Group that sends its own positions and recommendations to the authorities.
  • Those around them recognise abuse and know how to respond. Professionals, members of deinstitutionalisation committees and families are trained to identify abuse and act on it.
  • State institutions work together. We hold round tables with the authorities and pilot local cooperation mechanisms in several counties to protect institutionalised persons.
  • Past abuse is acknowledged. Through a national civic campaign and legislative proposals, we call for public recognition of historical abuse against institutionalised persons, in line with Resolution 2533 (2024) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
  • Information becomes accessible. We publish a self-advocacy guide and easy-to-read materials.

Who we are

The project is implemented by Ceva de Spus Association, the only self-advocacy organisation in Romania, formed and led by self-advocates, persons with disabilities, in partnership with Advocate for Dignity – Centre for Monitoring and Social Justice, a human rights organisation continuing the Advocate for Dignity monitoring and strategic litigation programme started in 2003. The two teams have worked together since 2013: the voice of lived experience alongside legal expertise.

At a glance

Project funded within the Civic Engagement Programme, supported by the Swiss Contribution to reducing economic and social disparities in the EU. The content of this material does not necessarily reflect the official position of Switzerland.